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WHY 




AMERICA LEADS 

IN 

RADIO 



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-fKbSSO 


By TrujfiBfor 

DFC 10'!«24 






Foreword 

The real measure of any industry is the public service that 
it renders. Its final accounting must be its accounting to the 
public. 

The pages that follow tell the story of American leader¬ 
ship in a new and vast system of world communications. 
They tell of the great contributions made by American 
inventive genius to an art as limitless as space itself. They 
tell of the victory of American organization; of the vision 
and patriotism of American industry. 

The history of modern radio is the history of the Radio 
Corporation of America. Since the urgent call of Govern¬ 
ment officials brought this Corporation into being, the United 
States has become the world-center of trans-oceanic wireless 
communication. Our ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore radio 
systems cover the seas. Our feats of broadcasting music, 
entertainment and education to the home have startled the 
world. 

International communication is a two-way circuit. Every 
intelligent American will realize that subsidized control of 
radio abroad must be met by a unified system of trans¬ 
oceanic radio here. The first real competition in interna¬ 
tional communications was offered by the Radio Corporation 
of America; the first fruit of its enterprise was a general 
reduction in trans-oceanic rates, of direct advantage to the 
American public. 

In the industry developed by radio broadcasting, the Radio 
Corporation of America occupies a unique position. Every 
city, every town in the United States, bears witness to the 
keen and ever-growing competition in the manufacture and 
sale of radio apparatus. But the titanic voice of radio—the 
modern broadcasting station, erected and maintained at a 
great investment of capital—that is the achievement of the 
Radio Corporation of America and of the manufacturing 
companies associated with it. It is the symbol of public 
service offered by an industry to the public which supports it* 

J. G. HARBORD, 
President, 

Radio Corporation of America. 






Copyrighted 

by 

Radio Corporation of America 
April, 1924 


gHE BEGINNINGS OF %ADIO 

Radio literally announced itself to the world by 
the ringing of a bell in a scientist’s laboratory. 
Weak and trembling was this first approach, as 
it sought the attention of a human mind absorbed 
in other electrical researches. 

Then came the day when its insistent appeals 
no longer were ignored, when a startled scientist 
leaning over a hand-bell still trembling from the 
blow of an unseen power, conceived the idea that 
electro-magnetic waves generated by an induction 
coil in his laboratory would explain the phenome¬ 
non. Thus it was that Professor Hertz, a German 
scientist, was able to announce a momentous fact 
to the world. 

This discovery, widely published, registered 
with deep understanding on the mind of an 18 
year old Italian youth, Guglielmo Marconi. If, 
he argued, it be true that the ether can carry 
electrical energy, why could not these electro-mag¬ 
netic waves be used in a system of wireless com¬ 
munication? With this objective, he began his 
task. First, he developed a method of sending 
electro-magnetic waves through the air; then, he 
found a way of intercepting and recording the 
signals thus flashed from a transmitting station. 
It was crude and feeble, this first radio circuit. 
But a great feat had been accomplished. Man had 
discovered a new method of communication. 

Soon many minds in many lands were absorbed 
in the scientific and technical problems presented 
by radio. Marconi took his invention to England, 
where encouraged by public and official opinion, he 
demonstrated that electro-magnetic waves could 
travel a mile—five miles—fifty miles, and more. 


[ 5 ] 


“an unseen 
power* 


“an Italian 
youth'* 


“fijty miles 
and more" 






SHIP-TO-SHORE COMMUNICATION BY RADIO 


“sailed . . . 
never to 
return* 


“a struggling 
art” 


Since the dawn of history, the ocean, in men’s 
minds, stood for the terror of the great unknown. 
From its shores embarked adventure. Men sailed 
away never to return, their fate enshrouded in 
eternal silence. Mystery lived in its unfathomable 
depths. Beyond the dim edge of the seas lay 
strange lands, strange people, unknown conti¬ 
nents. Even modern man, with his ocean-liners, 
when he took passage abroad, steamed away into 
silence until reported from shore days or weeks 
later. It was natural, therefore, that man should 
turn to the ocean for the first application of radio 
telegraphy. When ship-to-shore communication 
had been thoroughly proved, installations fol¬ 
lowed on many ships. 

It was not long before fate provided the dra¬ 
matic moment when the attention of the entire 
world might be focused on a struggling art. In 
1909 the steamship 4 ‘Republic” of the White Star 
Line met in collision the Italian ship “Florida” 



The RCA equipped S. S. Vacuum, oj the Vacuum Oil Company 


[ 6 ] 








off Nantucket. The crash came in the middle of 
the night, and the first call for help flashed from 
the ocean by a wireless operator thrilled the whole 
world. 

This was the famous C. Q. D. signal sent by 
Jack Binns, whose coolness and presence of mind 
resulted in saving the lives of 1,500 human beings 
on a sinking ship. 

It was this disaster that crystallized to the 
world, the great value of radio on shipboard. 
Today all sea-going vessels carrying 50 persons 
or more are required by international law to carry 
radio installation and competent operators. An 
indication of how America has progressed in this 
phase of the art is shown by the fact that in 1913 
there were but 479 American vessels equipped 
with radio while in 1923 the total was 2,762, an 
increase during these ten years of 576%. 

TRANS OCEANIC WIRELESS 

For a time the development of radio followed 
the activities of the sea. Installations aboard 
ships multiplied; coastal stations designed for 
ship-to-shore communication increased. The Mar¬ 
coni Company of America organized by British 
interests and operating under foreign patents was 
the dominant factor in radio in the American 
field. A number of high-power stations had been 
erected in the United States for trans-oceanic te¬ 
legraphy. But here, unfortunately, the industry 
had grown in advance of the art. The key to con¬ 
stant, reliable trans-oceanic service had not yet 
been found by those who controlled the basic pat¬ 
ents of the art. Existing equipment could not 


[ 7 ] 


“1500 human 
beings’* 


“Today All 
Vessels” 


“under 
Joreign 
patents” 







RADIO CORPORATION SHIPBOARD SET 
Installation on S.S. Leviathan 


"American 

inventive 

genius” 


generate sufficient power in suitable form to 
transmit radio messages continuously across the 
Atlantic. 

It was during this period that American inven¬ 
tive genius, fathered by our great industrial insti¬ 
tutions, took up the torch of radio progress. 
American industrial vision had foreseen that the 
development of the radio art might require a spe¬ 
cial type of electrical generating machine of vast¬ 
ly greater range and power than heretofore had 
been found necessary. In Schenectady the Gen¬ 
eral Electric Company had been engaged for ten 
years in the colossal task of designing and build¬ 
ing a high speed continuous wave alternating cur¬ 
rent machine which might be used, instead of the 


[ 8 ] 







spark apparatus, to transmit signals across the 
whole breadth of an ocean. Now its great invest¬ 
ment of money and time and effort was about to 
bear fruit. Distinguished representatives of the 
Marconi Company of England had come to this 
country to negotiate for the sole and exclusive 
rights to the “Alexanderson Alternator / 1 as this 
new and latest giant of radio was called. 

Then came the Great War in 1914. Soon it was 
apparent that no foreign country must be permit¬ 
ted to control our communications of the air; the 
United States Government took over the high- 
power stations of the Marconi Company of Amer¬ 
ica. Immediately all negotiations were stopped 
by the General Electric Company for the sale of 
the Alexanderson Alternator. Freely and un¬ 
grudgingly, the General Electric Company placed 
its great and costly development at the service of 
the nation. It installed the Alexanderson Alter¬ 
nator at the New Brunswick (New Jersey) wire¬ 
less station, then operated by the Government, 
and remodeled the entire system of wireless trans¬ 
mission. At once the bar that had stood in the 
way of successful trans-oceanic telegraphy was 
lifted, and for the first time continuous and prac¬ 
tically uninterrupted communication was made 
possible through the air with the greatest nations 
of the world. 

“It was the first high-power station on the At¬ 
lantic coast which transmitted radio messages con¬ 
tinuously and reliably,” says the report of the 
Federal Trade Commission, recently issued by the 
United States Government. 

Great and efficient as were the older forms of 
communication, the sudden realization brought on 
by the war, that the cutting of a cable could all 


"money and 
lime and 
effort” 


“Quickly 
it was 
apparent " 


“for the first 
time'” 


[ 9 ] 








SENTINELS OF WORLD WIDE WIRELESS 
Ihree-Mile Line oj the First Twelve Towers at Radio Central, 
the RCA Trans-oceanic station for Communication with Europe and 
South America. The Power House is Located in the Center oj the 
Tower Line. 


[ 10 ] 






























but isolate an entire nation, developed in bold re¬ 
lief the vision and promise of radio telegraphy. 
Radio became the subject of research and experi¬ 
ment in the great workshops of the nation, and 
important devices and developments began to flow 
from the laboratories of the Westinghouse Elec¬ 
tric & Manufacturing Company, the General Elec¬ 
tric Company, the Western Electric Company and 
other outstanding elements in the electrical and 
manufacturing industries of the United States. 
Each sought the goal of individual leadership; 
each was spurred on by the achievements of the 
others; each was actuated by the dominant thought 
that the hour had struck for America to take the 
leadership in a new and constantly unfolding art. 
But none questioned the privilege of the American 
government to levy upon industry as it had levied 
upon man-power. The government took rightly 
enough, where it willed, disregarding patent 
claims, disregarding property rights, under the 
stress of the greatest emergency ever faced by 
our country. 

THE PROBLEMS OF PEACE 

In radio, as in other activities, peace brought 
to the United States the problem of demobiliza¬ 
tion. Should this country tamely relinquish the 
leadership of the air which American inventive 
genius, American industrial vision and American 
capital, had given to the nation? Should our 
trans-oceanic communications by radio again be 
permitted to pass under alien control? In a sea 
of conflicting patent claims, litigation and rights, 
would the public interest be served better by a 
number of poorly organized, badly equipped 


“began to 
flow* 


“each was 
spurred’* 


“tamely 
relinquish** 


[ii] 








“our unified 
achievements' 


transmitting companies each attempting to oper¬ 
ate without vital patents held by the others? Or 
by one thoroughly organized, supremely equipped 
American company representing our unified 
achievements in the field of radio? One meant 
foreign control in any event, for international 
communication is a stream that must be fed both 
at its source and at its outlet if it is to reach an 
economically sound level. With a number of com¬ 
panies—instead of one great corporation—com¬ 
peting with each other for incoming traffic from 
nations overseas, alien communication systems, 
not American interests, would have fixed the condi¬ 
tions and terms under which the American people 
could send wireless messages through stations 
abroad. Only the presence in the field of a great 



TWO 200 K.W. HIGH FREQUENCY ALTERNATORS 

Two oj the Alternators Used Jor Transmission at Radio Central. One 
Alternator is Capable oj Furnishing a Continuous Output oj 200 
Kilowatts at Frequencies Covering a Wavelength Band Jrom 15,000 
to 20,000 Meters. 


[12] 












American company, backed by the incomparable 
resources of American industry, could bring the 
United States the victory of the air. 

Nor was the problem presented by trans-oceanic 
communication the only problem in radio which 
cried for solution. The vacuum tube, the promise 
and hope of modern radio, was tossing in a sea 
of heated litigation. Silent men working in lab¬ 
oratories, some supported by the resources of 
great organizations, had evolved striking improve¬ 
ments on the original tube device. Powerful 
enough at one end to transform the strongest elec¬ 
trical impulse into a series of electro-magnetic 
waves, and yet so marvelously sensitive at the 
other end as to register clearly the faintest whis¬ 
per that floats through the air, the vacuum tube 
proved to be the very heart of radio. In its depth 
was the secret of radio broadcasting. Yet there 
was the basic patent—the Fleming tube—owned 
and controlled by the Marconi Company of Amer¬ 
ica, and here were the improvements that would 
make it function as it could not without the help 
of American inventive genius. Also there were 
other indispensable radio patents, owned by con¬ 
flicting interests, each refusing to cross-license 
the other. Only the master-hand of organization 
could bring order and progress out of the chaos 
wherein floated the radio industry at the close of 
the war. 

THE FORMATION OF THE RADIO CORPORATION OF 
AMERICA 

On April 5, 1919, a small group of men, includ¬ 
ing Owen D. Young, now Chairman of the Board 
of the Radio Corporation of America, sat in the 
New York office of the General Electric Company 


“the victory 
oj the air” 


“silent men 
working” 


“the secret 
oj radio” 


“indispens¬ 
able patents” 


[13] 









RECEIVER SECTION AT RIVERHEAD, L. I. 

One Section Accommodates Three Receiver Shelves, Each Shelf Com¬ 
posed of All Units Necessary to Receive from One European Station. 
There are Five of these Sections, thus Affording Fifteen Individual 
Receiving Circuits. 


“of a dis¬ 
tinguished 
officer” 


awaiting the visit of a distinguished officer 
of the United States Navy, the Governments 
senior representative in control of radio in the 
United States during the war. Nothing was fur¬ 
ther from the minds of these leaders of industry 
than the thought that they might be called upon 
to organize radio in the United States. The busi¬ 
ness of the General Electric Company was to de¬ 
sign and build special apparatus for sale to its 
customers. Its trade outposts spread over the 
earth; its market covered the world; and now it 
was about to complete negotiations with the Mar¬ 
coni Company of England for the use of the Alex- 
anderson Alternator, the machine that had made 
commercial trans-oceanic radio possible. Perhaps 


[14] 









the conversation that ensned on the visitor’s ar¬ 
rival is best described by Rear Admiral W. H. G. 
Bullard, U. S. N., the Government’s representa¬ 
tive at this historic conference. 

An American Wireless Doctrine 

*“As the senior Government representative, I 
unfolded to these officials (of the General Electric 
Company) the danger to American interests that 
would ensue if the Alexanderson machine should 
be sold to any foreign government or foreign pri¬ 
vate companies. I pointed out that our citizens 
had never played any prominent part in cable 
communications and here was a chance to retain 
in American hands the complete domination of 
radio communication in the United States, as well 
as Central and South America. I made reference 
to a policy of wireless doctrine, similar to the 
greater Monroe Doctrine by which the control of 
radio on this Continent would remain in American 
hands. . . . The chairman finally announced 

that as the matter had been presented to them it 
would be a most unpatriotic action to proceed with 
the negotiations with the English Company, and 
as far as the directors then present could do so, 
they would proceed no further in the contemplated 
sale of the Alexanderson machine.” 

Admiral Bullard had hurried to New York im¬ 
mediately upon his return from Paris. The New 
Brunswick wireless station, he said, equipped with 
an Alexanderson Alternator, had proved the 
American radio system the best system in the 

•From Vol. 49 of the U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings. 


[15] 


“this historic 
co njere nee* 


“the danger to 
American 
interests” 


“of wireless 
doctrine” 


“the best 
system in 
the world” 







POWER HOUSE AND COOLING POND 
Front View of Power House at Radio Central. In the Foreground is 
Shown the Cooling Pond for the Water which Circulates through the High 
Speed Alternators> thereby Permitting Constant Mechanical Operation. 


[16] 



























world. To turn this over to the control of for¬ 
eign interests would be to renounce American 
leadership in a field which American genius had 
done so much to develop. It was the patriotic 
duty of American industry to establish a wholly 
American company to meet the competition of 
other radio interests in the world. 

In this manner was horn the Radio Corporation 
of America, and from this moment began the mo¬ 
bilization of research and patents and manufac¬ 
turing facilities that has made America the cen¬ 
ter of modern world-wide wireless. 

Radio-Central—The Super-Power Station 

On the north shore of Long Island, the Radio 
Corporation of America began the construction of 
a Radio Central—a super-power radio system 
that simultaneously could send and receive mes¬ 
sages from the great nations of the world across 
the ocean. This giant of radio, with its steel 
towers covering more than ten square miles of 
land, has made the United States the focal point 
of the world in the transmission and reception of 
wireless intelligence. It stands as a monument to 
American achievement, the greatest milestone in 
the progress of radio across the oceans. 

Radio-Central was opened for public service on 
November 5, 1921, by the late President Harding, 
whose message of greeting to the world was the 
first one sent out from the station. 

The message was received simultaneously and 
directly in 28 different countries of the world, in¬ 
cluding New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, etc. 


[17] 


“Thus was 
born* 


“across the 
ocean* 


“the greatest 
milestone’* 







The message was as follows: 

THE WHITE HOUSE, 
Washington, United States of America. 


“in every 
land from 
every sky * 


“To be able to transmit a message by radio in 
expectation that it may reach every radio station 
in the world, is so marvelous a scientific and tech¬ 
nical achievement as to justify special recognition 
(stop) It affords peculiar gratification that such 
a message, from the Chief Executive of the United 
States of America, may be received in every land, 
from every sky, by peoples with whom our nation 
is at peace and amity (stop) That this happy 
situation may ever continue, and that the peace 
which blesses our own land may presently become 
the fortune of all lands and peoples, is the earnest 
hope of the American nation (stop) 

(Signed) WARREN G. HARDING.” 


November 5,1921. 



OPERATING SECTION 

Located in the Heart of New York’s Financial District. Here Radio¬ 
grams are Directly Radioed to and from Europe through Radio Central 
and other RCA Trans-Atlantic Stations by Means of Special Remote 
Control. 


[18] 












RADIO BROADCASTING 

While one of the leaders of the American elec¬ 
trical industry had been writing the history of 
radio on and across the ocean, another leading in¬ 
dustrial institution was carrying the message of 
radio to the home. To the Westinghouse Electric 
and Manufacturing Company had come the vision 
of radio bringing music and education and enter¬ 
tainment to every home in the land. Late in 1920, 
the Westinghouse company erected a broadcasting 
station at its manufacturing plant, located at East 
Pittsburgh, Pa., and on November 2, 1920, began 
to send out the first organized and regular pro¬ 
gram service starting with the announcement of 
the Presidential election returns. Crude as this 
service was compared to that rendered by the 
modern broadcasting station, it was a startling 
demonstration of the universal and beneficent 
power of radio. Little did the small groups of 
pioneer listeners realize that in three years the 
mighty voice of radio would be heard in over 
3,000,000 American homes. 

As in trans-oceanic radio, the glowing promise 
which broadcasting held forth could not be ful¬ 
filled, until the Government’s appeal for united 
effort in developing the vacuum tube was an¬ 
swered by the Radio Corporation of America. A 
wall of patents surrounded this development— 
patent claims in interference, patent claims in liti¬ 
gation, basic and indispensable patents owned by 
separate interests declining to license each other. 
It was this condition that impelled officers of the 
United States Government on two occasions to 
urge that the interests concerned should cooper¬ 
ate as public duty. 


[19] 


“Late in 
1920” 


“a wall 
of patents” 





















“The development of the radio industry, both 
in the manufacture of radio apparatus and in the 
operation of reliable commercial trans-oceanic 
systems was retarded while the numerous broad 
and fundamental radio patents were owned and 
controlled by opposing interests,” according to 
the report published December 1st, 1923, by the 
United States Federal Trade Commission. “The 
very soul of radio, both for commercial operations 
of commercial systems and to the amateur,’’ to 
quote testimony published in the Commission’s 
report, “is the three-electrode vacuum tube, and 
no company which cannot supply equipment de¬ 
signed to be used with these tubes can hope to be 
a success.” 

And what was the situation that faced the radio 
industry with regard to the development of the 
modern vacuum tube ? The two-element tube con¬ 
trolled by the Marconi Company of America was 
not altogether efficient for the purpose of modern 
broadcasting; the third element covered by an¬ 
other patent was ineffective without the use of the 
original two-element tube; nor, indeed was the 
three-element tube altogether satisfactory, before 
its improvement by still another invention. 

The diverse ownership of patents, methods, ap¬ 
paratus and circuits involved in the use of the 
modern vacuum tube finally impelled the United 
States Navy Department to write to the interests 
concerned appealing for an agreement between 
the holders of permanent patents whereby the 
public could be freely supplied with tubes. 


[ 21 ] 


“The very 
soul oj 
Radio” 


“the modern 
vacuum 
lube” 








“an appeal 
for the good” 


INTERIOR OF STUDIO “WJZ" 

In the Aeolian Building, New York City 
Two transmitters and two studios are employed in this station, for 
simultaneous broadcasting of different programs from “WJZ” and 
“WJY” on 455 and 405 meters respectively. 

“The situation has become such that it is a pub¬ 
lic necessity that such arrangement be made with¬ 
out further delay, and this letter may be consid¬ 
ered an appeal for the good of the public for a 
remedy to the situation.” 

(The above quotation is from the report of the 
Federal Trade Commission, quoting a letter from 
the Bureau of Steam Engineering, of the United 
States Navy, written on January 5, 1920, to the «, 
General Electric Company.) 

The manner in which the Radio Corporation of 
America accepted this great responsibility, the 
spirit of public service which it brought to the 
task, and the success with which it organized the 
necessary manufacturing facilities, are best re- 


[ 22 ] 


















fleeted in the record of its achievements that fol¬ 
lows. It is a work unparalleled in American in¬ 
dustrial history. Over 10,000,000 people in 3,000,- 
000 homes throughout the United States are the 
direct beneficiaries of the vision and faith of its 
founders. 

THREE YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENT 

The Radio Corporation of America was horn 
at the urgent call of public service, in the twilight 
period of a developing art. Its mission was to 
secure for America unquestionable supremacy 
in radio communications, to which the contribu¬ 
tions of American inventive genius, American in¬ 
dustrial organization and American capital, justly 
entitled us. And this is the record of its achieve¬ 
ment and position— 

In Trans-oceanic Radio: 

(1) The United States has become the center of 
world wide wireless as a result of the or¬ 
ganization of the Radio Corporation of 
America. With a system of seven high 
power transmitting units on the Atlantic 
coast and a great central receiving sta¬ 
tion on the shores of Long Island, 
this country for the first time has reached 
out through the air to Great Britain, 
France, Germany, Poland, Norway and 
Italy, in Europe. From San Francisco, this 
same American company spans through the 
air the great Pacific, via Hawaii, to Japan. 
Again, from New York a direct radio link 
has recently been established to Buenos 
Aires, and other points in South America. 

(2) The general reduction during 1923 in trans¬ 
oceanic message rates is a direct result of 


[ 23 ] 


“over 

10,000,000 
people” 


“justly 
entitled us” 


“world wide 
wireless” 






"cheaper 
and better * 


“humanita¬ 
rian services” 


the competition offered by radio to the 
cables. Thus the unified control of trans¬ 
oceanic wireless by the Radio Corporation 
of America has made the American public 
the beneficiaries of cheaper and better in¬ 
ternational communications than for any 
period during the past 40 years. 

In Marine Radio: 

(1) The Radio Corporation of America shares 
with its several competitors on the Atlan¬ 
tic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, the distinction 
of having made radio more efficient on the 
ocean. Radio has not only destroyed the 
isolation of the sea but it has brought a 
variety of humanitarian services to every 
corner of the ocean—medical advice from 
shore, storm warnings, other weather infor- 



CONTROL ROOM OF DUAL STATION “WJZ-WJY 
The Operator Stands before an Oscitlograph—a Device for Checking the 
Characteristics of the Program being Transmitted. 


[ 24 ] 









mation and pilotage by wireless. In 1913 
there were but 479 American ships equipped 
with radio. In 1923 there were 2,762 radio 
equipped American ships—an increase of 
576 per cent! 


In Radio Broadcasting: 

(1) The Radio Corporation of America and its 
associated companies have initiated, sup¬ 
plied and supported a public service, by the 
erection of a system of broadcasting sta¬ 
tions. Without these great broadcasting 
stations, radiating every day their pro¬ 
grams of music, entertainment and educa¬ 
tion, every receiving set in the land would 
be but a piece of silent mechanism. The 
ten broadcasting stations owned and oper¬ 
ated for the benefit of the American public 
by the Radio Corporation of America and 
its allied interests, the Westinghouse and 
the General Electric Companies, represent 
an investment of approximately $2,000,000, 
and a yearly operating expense of approxi¬ 
mately $1,000,000. Such has been the 
progress of radio broadcasting, that where¬ 
as in 1921 only two broadcasting stations 
were operating in this country, in 1923 over 
500 stations were reaching out through the 
air to deliver the message of radio to 
3,000,000 homes and to 10,000,000 people in 
the United States. 

(2) Faced by the competition of more than 
3,000 other manufacturers of radio appara¬ 
tus and supplies in the United States, the 
Radio Corporation of America has been the 
one stabilizing influence in the radio indus- 


“radiating 
every day* 


“over 500" 
stations** 


one 

stabilizing 

influence* 


[ 25 ] 







[ 26 ] 


THE RCA BUILDING 

At 66 Broad Street, New York City; the Home oj World Wide 
Wireless . Here is located the Central Traffic Office, the Heart oj the 
44 Via RCA” System. 













•try. Its first move after placing manufac¬ 
turing facilities on an economical basis was 
to reduce the price of sets. 

(3) The Radio Corporation of America is the 
only institution that could have met the 
appeal of the United States Government 
for a patents agreement that would make 
possible the manufacture and supply of 
vacuum tubes to the American radio public. 
When production was thoroughly organized 
the Radio Corporation of America reduced 
the price of tubes, and this at a time when 
the demand for these tubes was in excess 
of the supply . 

(4) The Radio Corporation of America has ac¬ 
cepted a responsibility greater than the 
mere designing and distributing of radio 
apparatus. It maintains at a large invest¬ 
ment of capital a great research laboratory 
where every new device in a swiftly moving 
art is examined, tested and tried; where 
every development that might offer a new 
service to the public goes under the scru¬ 
tiny of modern engineering science; and 
where every type of apparatus and equip¬ 
ment is tested under the microscope of 
service and achievement before it is put 
into production and offered for sale. 

Institutions, like men, grow great by service. 
The success of the Radio Corporation of America 
exemplifies the highest type of Americanism in 
business—the principle of unfettered achievement 
constantly at work to develop an art; of far¬ 
sighted industrial organization formed for the 
purpose of economic production; of leadership 
and vision pledged to the service of public interest. 


“a great 
research 
laboratory” 


“of leader¬ 
ship and 
vision” 


[ 27 ] 



















c 



What the Federal Trade Commission Reported 

(From the Report of the Investigating Committee 
of the United States Federal Trade Commission.) 

“So far as can be determined from the 
records of the Radio Corporation of Amer¬ 
ica and from investigation among the 
trade, there appears to be no attempt on 
the part of any of the manufacturers of 
radio apparatus to eliminate by unfair 
methods the general price cutting condi¬ 
tions which prevail in the trade. On the 
contrary, it does appear that notwithstand¬ 
ing continual price cutting, not only by the 
distributors of the Radio Corporation, but 
also by the retail trade, all continue to re¬ 
ceive radio apparatus notwithstanding the 
efforts of that part of the trade that does 
not cut prices to induce the Radio Corpora¬ 
tion and other manufacturers to refuse to 
make further shipments to the cut-price 
dealers.’ ’ 






Secretary Hoover’s Summary of America’s 

Position in Trans-oceanic Communication 

(From the annual report of the Department of 
Commerce for 1923.) 

6 ‘ Our trans-oceanic system is materially 
strengthened by the nine radio circuits 
across the Atlantic and Pacific and addi¬ 
tional circuits to Central America. It is 
estimated by radio-operating companies 
that from 20 to 30 per cent of the message 
traffic across the Atlantic and 50 per cent 
of the trans-Pacific business was handled 
by radio in 1922. Obviously this forms an 
important service supplementing cables 
both in peace and war, safeguarding 
against interruption in service and is a 
competitive check which should tend con¬ 
stantly to improve the service at the low¬ 
est practicable rates.” 


*8 


[ 31 ] 






America’s Progress in Radio Broadcasting 
Compared to the Progress Made by 
Foreign Countries 

(From Secretary Hoover’s annual report for 1923 
of the Department of Commerce.) 

“Radio broadcasting continues to hold 
the interest of the public, and is to a lim¬ 
ited extent gaining recognition in other 
countries. We have now 573 broadcasting 
stations as compared with 382 a year ago. 
The first broadcasting license was issued in 
September, 1921. In foreign countries 
there are hut 63, Canada having 30 of 
these!” 

(From Secretary Hoover’s year-end review of the 
progress of radio in 1923, published in the news¬ 
papers.) 

“Radio telegraphic communication with 
Italy, Poland and Argentina and other 
South and Central American countries, has 
been established, additional circuits to 
Germany and Japan are working, and 
radio relationships are being established 
with China and other countries, all mark¬ 
ing the initiation of the building up of the 
international position which rightly be¬ 
longs to us.” 






The Radio Corporation of America an 

American Company Serving the Nation 

(From an address over “WRC” by Theodore Roose¬ 
velt, Assistant Secretary of the Navy at Washington, 
August 1, 1923.) 

“We cooperated with the General Elec¬ 
tric Company and other American com¬ 
panies in the organization of this Radio 
Corporation of America from where this 
message is going. This is an American 
Company financed by Americans and serv¬ 
ing onr country. At its head is a splendid 
American — General Harbord — whom I 
have known for years and am proud to call 
my friend. The Navy Department is 
deeply interested in its success and will 
help where it can, for it feels that it sup¬ 
plies a marked advantage to the United 
States. There is no divided loyalty in the 
Radio Corporation of America. Its allegi¬ 
ance is to the United States alone.’ ’ 


% 


[ 33 ] 







The Success of the Radio Corporation Is the 
Success of American Ideals 

(From an address delivered over “WRC” by Gen¬ 
eral John L. Kines, Deputy Chief of Staff of the 
United States Army, at Washington, D. C., August 1, 
1923.) 

“It is particularly comforting to realize 
that this undertaking is in the hands of an 
organization which in many ways has 
proven itself to be one hundred per cent 
American and whose growing success is an 
indication of American ideals. Its presi¬ 
dent, General J. G. Harbord, won a world¬ 
wide recognition for his solid achievements 
as a commander of troops and as chief of 
staff of the A. E. F. Even though I were 
ignorant of the character of this corpora¬ 
tion, the knowledge that its leadership is 
in the hands of a man like General Har- 
bord would give me assurance that its 
affairs will always be conducted according 
to the fine ideals of service for country and 
for humanity .’ 9 







Competitive Radio Stations in the United 
States to the Advantage of Foreign 
Interests and to Detriment 
of America 

(From a letter of Mr. Owen D. Young, Chairman 
of the Board of Directors of the Radio Corporation 
of America, to Secretary Denby of the United States 
Navy Department, December 22, 1921.) 

“Competitive radio stations in the 
United States for international communi¬ 
cations is in the interest of the foreigner 
and to the detriment of America. May I 
ask you to consider the position which 
America would be in if there were competi¬ 
tive radio stations on the Pacific coast? 
The principal volume of communications 
across the Pacific is, and probably for 
many years will be, with Japan. The 
Japanese end of these communications is 
controlled by the Japanese Government. 
Any American stations which lost the Jap- 
anese business would become practically 
valueless. Therefore, the owners of that 
station would, as a practical business mat¬ 
ter, have to accept any terms as to traffic 
which the Japanese cared to impose. In 
other words, the control of American wire¬ 
less communications on the Pacific coast 
would, under such conditions, pass from 
the hands of Americans into the hands of 
the Japanese. 

“The real fact of the matter is, Mr. Sec¬ 
retary, that the competition in interna¬ 
tional communication lies and should lie 
between the cables as one agency and wire¬ 
less as another agency. Nothing would 


[ 35 ] 






better satisfy the cable interests than a 
policy of setting up weak competitive radio 
stations in the United States. Wireless 
would thereby be proven to be an unremun- 
erative business, and therefore, ineffective 
as a competitor of the cables.” 




136 ] 






The Policy of the Radio Corporation of 
America with Respect to Broadcasting 

(From an address by Mr. David Sarnoff, Vice-Presi¬ 
dent and General Manager of the Radio Corporation 
of America, before the Electrical Supply Jobbers 
Association at Buffalo, November 15, 1923.) 

44 The greatest advantage of broadcasting 
lies in its universality, in its ability to 
reach everybody, everywhere, anywhere, 
in giving free entertainment, culture, in¬ 
struction, and all the items which consti¬ 
tute a program, in doing that which no 
other agency has yet been able to do, and 
it is up to us, of the Radio Art and Indus¬ 
try with intelligence and technique and 
broadness of spirit and vision as to the 
future, to preserve that most delightful 
element in the whole situation—the freedom 
of radio. 

44 * * * Just ag goon ag we d es troy 

that freedom and universality of radio and 
confine it to only those who pay for it— 
those who pay for the service, in other 
words—just so soon as we make of broad¬ 
casting 4 narrowcasting,’ we destroy the 
fundamental of the whole situation. And, 
therefore, I believe very definitely that 
broadcasting as constituted today is com¬ 
mercially sound, and that it will remain so 
in the future, although there may be selec¬ 
tive methods and narrowcast methods 
which will do no harm. These may sup¬ 
plement the situation. There may be wired- 
wireless and the like. All of these will 
make their contributions. But fundamen¬ 
tally there will remain, and there must re¬ 
main and be preserved that element of the 


[ 37 ] 







broadcast situation which makes it possible 
for grand opera to go to the slums and to 
the districts of the poor as well as the rich, 
everywhere in the world, without any 
charge. The real picture of a $15 or a $25 
set in the home of the slums, if you please, 
receiving the magnificent things in the air, 
is the picture we must preserve/’ 


Freedom of Speech 

(From a statement by Mr. David Sarnoff before the 
House of Representatives, Committee on Merchant 
Marine and Fisheries at Washington, D. C., on March 
13, 1924.) 

“I cannot help feeling that not only 
should the public be left free from the pay¬ 
ment of any license fee to the Government 
or others for the privilege of listening on a 
broadcast receiver, but that it should also 
be free from fees or tolls of any kind in 
the field of broadcasting through space. 
Furthermore, I believe that the expressions 
of educators and statesmen should reach 
them uncensored and uncontrolled. The 
air belongs to the people. It should be 
regulated by the will of a majority of the 
people. Its main highways should be main¬ 
tained for the main travel. To collect a 
tax from the radio audience would be a re¬ 
version to the days of toll roads and 
bridges; to the days when schools were not 
public or free, and when public libraries 
were unknown. 

‘ ‘ In the same way, the drawing of politi¬ 
cal, racial or religious lines would be a 
flareback to the day of intolerance and per¬ 
secution. 


[381 







“Had there been radio broadcasting in 
1858, there might have been no Civil War. 
The Lincoln-Douglas debates, broadcasted, 
would have reached the whole nation, and 
speaking to a larger audience, Lincoln 
might have achieved his peaceful program. 

“Broadcasting stations, in my concep¬ 
tion are, indeed, the bar at which causes 
can be pleaded for the verdicts of public 
opinion. The public is well aware that 
radio broadcasting is not confined to the 
influence of the lone speaker in the broad¬ 
cast studio; that speeches from public halls 
even now are constantly heard by a million 
listeners, and that eventually it will be 
practicable, if Congress is willing, to turn 
on the debates in the Federal legislative 
bodies, so that the radio world may form 
its own impressions of laws and the way 
they are made. 

“So powerful an instrument for public 
good should be kept free from partisan 
manipulations. ‘ America today may justly 
be proud of the freedom of its press. In 
no country in the world has this freedom 
been preserved more steadfastly.’ 

“It is the newspapers which have for¬ 
warded the movements to expose wrong 
doing and to establish justice, and it is my 
hope that the freedom of broadcasting will 
be maintained in the same American spirit. 
Not only do I believe that no artificial 
means should be evolved to restrict or tax 
the radio listeners, but I believe that the 
radio audience alone should be the final 
judge of interest in every radio program.’’ 


[ 39 ] 















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